Guaraná, a máquina do tempo dos Sateré-Mawé

Abstract

More than an agricultural product, guaraná is the past, the present, and the future of the Sateré-Mawé people. It was among them that Jesuit missionaries entering the region between the Madeira and the Tapajós rivers in the second half of the seventeenth century, first found the plant. Since then, guaraná has been the ultimate Sateré-Mawé ethnic marker. Besides being fundamental in accounting for their origin and social organization, guaraná enabled the Sateré-Mawé to become the first indigenous people to appear in Brazilian history as having their very own product processed and systematically commercialized during colonial and imperial times. In the Brazilian Republic of the third millennium, it is one of the first products to be associated with the most advanced concepts and practices in the perspective of postmodern paradigms such as sustainability, organic certified agriculture, fair trade and eco-sustainable development. It holds a considerable power of aggregation within a traditionally segmented society and, at the same time, it has an axial role in collaborative movements both at international and national levels. For the Sateré-Mawé, their native Waraná is both memory and a promise of safe navigation over time. This article is about how this has been possible.